David Olney Has Died

Sad news to report: A giant is gone. David Olney, a beloved singer and songwriter who’s widely regarded as a founding father of Americana, has died.

Saturday evening, Jan. 18, he was performing at the 30A Songwriters Festival in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., when he suffered what appears to have been a heart attack while onstage, according to an official statement. Per a Facebook post from fellow songsmith Amy Rigby, a doctor in the audience assisted in an effort to revive him, but Olney did not respond. He was 71 years old.

As contributor Skip Anderson pointed out in his 2014 Scene cover story, Olney’s name is often overlooked in discussions of  the revived interest in American roots music over the past quarter-century. But the Rhode Island native helped broaden the horizons of the medium throughout his five-decade career, which he’s spent in Nashville since arriving here in 1973. His catalog — including more than 20 solo albums — features story songs of the highest order. For a brief sampling, consider “Contender,” the title track from his 1981 album with then-band The X-Rays, which you can see him playing — performing, in the most literal sense — on Austin City Limits; “Roses,” the title track from a 1991 album that included high praise in its liner notes from Townes Van Zandt; and “Deeper Well,” recorded by Emmylou Harris on her Grammy-winning 1994 LP Wrecking Ball.

Olney’s most recent full-length, 2018’s This Side or the Other, is as casually brilliant as anything he’s done, focusing on the roots of the things that split us apart in this divisive time. Olney was “as Nashville as Nashville can be,” as Anderson aptly put it, and he’ll be missed by many.

Details on a public celebration of life were still pending at the time of this posting, and we’ll share those when they become available. Olney is survived by his wife Regine, daughter Lillian and son Redding.

Olney performed live on WUWF-FM’s Acoustic Interlude Saturday afternoon, and you can see a video of that below. He played his own songs and those of others, and discussed how exciting it still was to connect with his audience in person: “You only get one chance to play for somebody for the first time, and when they enjoy it, it’s the most satisfying feeling.” Also below, check out the Jan. 14 episode of Olney’s long-running YouTube series You Never Know, in which he performs and discusses his songs “Barrymore Remembers” and “Women Across the River.”